Democrats are once again trying to create havoc in the House.
On Monday, a Democrat Representative suggested that Republicans in the House who support the controversial Senate border bill should try to oust Speaker Johnson (R-LA) to help pass the border bill.
Talking Points…
- The Senate border bill
- Ousting Mike Johnson
- Analysis
From what I have read of the Senate border bill, it will do nothing to curb overall immigration numbers. The bill would allow up to 5,000 encounters a day at the border before locking down the border. If you run the numbers, that puts us at 1.8 million migrant encounters per year, which is three times the amount we were seeing when Donald Trump was in office.
My impression of the bill is that it codifies everything that Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have been doing over the last three years. For me, that makes it a non-starter. I am sure there are going to be Republicans both in the House and Senate that will buy into this, but the overwhelming majority of Republicans in office, at least from what I have read, are not backing this bill.
Democrats are so desperate to have this legislation passed that they are now suggesting the ouster of Speaker Johnson to make it happen. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) is encouraging any Republican who wants to support this bill to come forward to make a motion to vacate because it would only need a handful of Republicans to join it because every Democrat would vote to remove him.
While discussing the subject on NewsNation this week, Nickel stated:
"But I want to put something out here for my Republican colleagues. Right now, any one member of Congress can go to the floor and ask for a new Speaker of the House. And, at this point, it takes just four Republicans in the House to put country over party to temporarily put a Democrat or a moderate Republican in the Speaker's chair to move this bill through the House.
"That's what I think it's going to take to get this done. And there are a number of folks [in] the Republican conference willing to vote on this bill if they could get a chance. That's the issue."
Nickel also hit the MAGA group of Republicans in the House, suggesting that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are doing Donald Trump's bidding in the House and forcing Johnson to stay in line with Trump.
Since the border bill text was released, numerous high-profile Republicans have come out against it, so I don't see it even getting through the Senate, let alone the House. At the top of that list is Senator McConnell (R-KY), who has been distancing himself from the bill since last week and now appears to be ready to walk completely away from it.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has already stated that he is a "hard no" on the legislation, but Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has hinted that he may help it along if possible. At the very least, he seems to want to give it a chance, stating:
"We're studying it. We'll vote on Wednesday. But my strong preference would be for us to say, we're going to slow this down, make sure that everybody can understand what's in it.
"We can have a debate, try to make it better if that's possible, or kill it if necessary."
As I stated in previous reports, the fact that the legislation would allow up to 5,000 illegal encounters every day over a rolling week before kicking in its shutdown measures makes this a "no" for me right from the start. I really don't care what else is in that bill with a number that big.
Joe Biden has now started saying that he will remind Americans that the problem at the border falls on Trump and MAGA, and he says he will repeat it every day through November. When Trump was in office, the numbers were about 25% of what they are now, so this does not fall on Trump or MAGA. I am just hoping there are not enough moderate Republicans in the House to take Nickel's advice and ouster Johnson if this bill passes through the Senate. It will already be hard for the GOP to hold the House in November, but another motion to vacate would ensure that Democrats take over, which would be a disaster for Republicans, win or lose the White House in 2024.
